January 31, 2016

Maybe the writers of "Downton Abbey" knew they needed a shocker to re-interest viewers in this final and disappointing season. So, tonight in the 5th episode, there is the Earl of Grantham engaged in sustained projectile vomiting at a dinner party. In attendance is Neville Chamberlain, whom Cora has pulled in for her hospital fight.

And it's off to the hospital for the Earl. He recovers from the ulcer, for now. But it's clear that the combination of Lady Mary and son in law Tom will take over the run of the business. This health problem makes the clueless Earl even more of a lame duck.

To everyone's surprise, Mary is allowing Tom into her life. He even provides coaching on relationships. Mary has been ambivalent about the budding romance with Henry Talbot. He is lower in class status than she. But Tom is pushing them together, reminding Mary what a wonderful bonding he and the late Sybil had had.

Meanwhile, Lady Edith is truly ahead of her time. She is hiring a female editor. And she entertains Bernie Pelham in her single-lady flat. That, of course, is verboten. Yet, Edith keeps returning to Downton Abbey. We all wonder when she will gain the strength to break free of that negative undertow.

Mary is finally connecting the dots on Marigold's origins. She was out of the loop on that one. Now she has something big to bully Edith with. Mary can be quite generous with the servants such as Anna but remains mean-spirited with Edith.

It will be remarkable if the Earl finishes out the season. So, we might be able to look forward to Cora's finding her true soulmate. Maybe it will be a nice American chap who returns her to the U.S. Edith can sell her publishing business and also migrate with Marigold to the land of freedom. And away from Mary, who is bound to become even more bossy as she takes control of the business.

Very quickly Trump evolved into the Jesus Christ of business. As he noted, those disciples would stick with him even if he shot someone.

We couldn't get enough. We still can't get enough. And clients, editors, and audiences want Trump flavoring in the communications we prepare for them. Even the most tradition-bound have crossed the line over to provocative.

Of course, many of us are not used to dishing up spicy. So, the first draft or the first pitches of topics were bound to be rejected. Then we got the hang of being way out there. More of our work was approved, the first time around.

The question is: If elected U.S. President, will Trump shift to statesmanlike? That would mean we would also have to shift back to more traditional topics, tone, word choice, and supporting evidence.

Personally and professionally, I have doubts the Trump brand of bombast can be sustained. Several years ago, I ghostwrote a book for Boston entrepreneur, Andrew Bachman. He did not hold back in rhetoric. I wondered if his verbal extremes would put a cap on his career trajectory. Worse than that had happened.

Can being so out there be a red flag that something might be rotten in the state of Denmark? Hamlet either put on an antic disposition or was really mad. Zuckerberg has settled into more conventional business rhetoric. So might Trump. For us in communications that means we will tone down the deliverables.

The signature for Generations Y and Z is texting. Many of them find voice communications unduly intrusive. And so much of business is conducted via email.

Yet, successful companies promote that they (happily) answer their phones. Those range from Home Depot to PayPal. Look at it this way: It's so easy to get a job in a call center, no matter what country you live in. That's because consumers need to talk about their transactional challenges.

It's in your commercial self interest to let prospects, customers, and clients know you hang out by the phone, eagerly awaiting their call. The reality is that it is easier to talk through specs, troubles, and disputes than to put all that into the written word.

In creating copy for a disruptive residential real estate firm I persuaded the founder to hammer that the team is always available, including by phone. That message is incorporated in the content in so many ways.

In my own marketing communications I have experimented. What is most effective is to list my voice information first. That send the message I am there. Then comes SKYPE. Then come email and Twitter.

When investing in a vendor's services, most prospects want the reassurance of experiencing the tone of the voice. Is there caring about the client in it? Is it too adolescent cool? And is it able to align with the chemistry of the prospect?

Seattle has become a microcosm of the 2 cultures that increasingly are sprouting in locations which got lucky with disruptive business models.

On the one hand are the financially comfortable employees at Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon. On the other are those who call their cars home. In The Guardian, Lucy Rock captures this clash.

Not that the currently well-employed will always be sitting pretty. Business is a volatile entity. Those laid off could find themselves stranded in Seattle. They may never find comparable work. They may have to sell their houses at a loss. And they can become part of the new Lost Generation of once high-flying professionals.

Those whose cars provide a roof over their heads are also not sitting pretty. Residents who aren't homeless find them scary. Seattle mirrors changing mores in so many municipalities: Compassion has turned into the ethos of "Not In My Backyard (NIMB)."

NIMB has overtaken even middle and lower middle class locations. In Tucson, Arizona, which had been hard hit by the real estate meltdown, some homeless squatted down in an alley in my neighborhood. The police were called. 72 hours notice was given to vacate. Meanwhile, homeowners were in high angst about revenge. I remember there was a time when those vagrants would have been fed and given used clothing.

Last night, after a Tucson recovery meeting anniversary party, there was plenty of food left over. Two old-fashioned kinds of guys bundled it up to distribute to a group of homeless who hang around downtown. Not everyone perceived that as commendable.

The solution is one society doesn't want to take. That's a combination of bringing back residential facilities for the chronically mentally ill, creating rock-bottom-priced housing, and providing job-corps-like programs which socialize the unemployed how to get and keep jobs. However, given the resources of Seattle, it could afford to pilot that kind of multi-dimensional initiative.

Seattle has become a microcosm of the 2 cultures that increasingly are sprouting in locations which got lucky with disruptive business models. On the one hand are the financially comfortable employees at Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon. On the other are those who call their cars home. In The Guardian, Lucy Rock captures this clash.

Not that the currently well-employed will always be sitting pretty. Business is a volatile entity. Those laid off could find themselves stranded in Seattle. They may never find comparable work. They may have to sell their houses at a loss. And they can become part of the new Lost Generation of once high-flying professionals.

Those whose cars provide a roof over their heads are also not sitting pretty. Residents who aren't homeless find them scary. Seattle mirrors changing mores in so many municipalities: Compassion has turned into the ethos of "Not In My Backyard (NIMB)."

NIMB has overtaken even middle and lower middle class locations. In Tucson, Arizona, which had been hard hit by the real estate meltdown, some homeless squatted down in an alley in my neighborhood. The police were called. 72 hours notice was given to vacate. Meanwhile, homeowners were in high angst about revenge. I remember there was a time when those vagrants would have been fed and given used clothing.

Last night, after a Tucson recovery meeting anniversary party, there was plenty of food left over. Two old-fashioned kinds of guys bundled it up to distribute to a group of homeless who hang around downtown. Not everyone perceived that as commendable.

The solution is one society doesn't want to take. That's a combination of bringing back residential facilities for the chronically mentally ill, creating rock-bottom-priced housing, and providing job-corps-like programs which socialize the unemployed how to get and keep jobs. However, given the resources of Seattle, it could afford to pilot that kind of multi-dimensional initiative.

The demand I keep encountering is to research and ghostwrite e-books. Those are the kinds that can be knocked off on computer, made available for free, and distributed on a website and other forms of social media. No gatekeepers such as agents are needed.

What smart players have realized is that the old-fashioned way to establish a brandname and to market is only open to those with an infrastructure. That includes a top-drawer publicist and a network of movers and shakers who keep the buzz going. No, even the most brilliant concept well executed for a book probably won't get you anywhere. In fact, since Amazon posts the rankings, you could suffer a branding setback if your book never gets sales traction.

So, re-think the classic advice: A book is the price of entry. Those who took that seriously wound up going the agent/publisher or self-publishing route. They invested plenty in the ghostwriting services of a professional like myself. And at the end of the publishing road was only low Amazon rankings. You bet, everyone from their clients to their competitors check those numbers. Your branding is shaped by your Amazon numbers.

A more effective strategy would be to become a known entity through social networks and social media. Linked Pulse and Medium are top sites for creating influence. Here is my own recent article on Medium.

January 30, 2016

In the 2014 documentary about counterculture pied piper, Timothy Leary, what's hammered is that mortality remains taboo. That's despite Leary's best efforts to enlighten his followers about the reality of the dying process.

Currently there are plenty of books nudging us to embrace that one day we are going to die. Among the most enchanting is"Tour of Bones." That was published in 2014, just shortly after the author, Denise Inge, died of cancer. And in spiritual centers, the meme is how to make death a friend, not an enemy.

Ironically, at the same time, suicide is on the rise in atypical populations, such as middle-class whites.

There are all different ways to blow up taboos. The Pill did that for Puritan-like attitudes about sex. Elaborate memorials for our deceased animal companions brought pet grief out of the closet.

Maybe "SNL" type humor will bring the reality of death out of the shadows. Next Halloween costumes can be the outfit we plan to be buried in. Mine will be a dress with a plunging neckline, showcasing perfect (leased) breasts. You bet, I plan to pay the undertaker plenty for that.

So, it's no surprise that with Iowa so near, the Drudge Report has brought back its once-standard flashing blue light. We early adopters of reading news on the Internet vividly remember that light flashing.

Among the news items that the light hovers over is the headline that Hillary Clinton is at 45 and Bernie Sanders at 42 in the polls.

God bless America. May the best leader move into the White House in January 2017.

In "A Common Struggle," Patrick Kennedy recently outed the details of his mental illness. The book could change the game because he framed mental illness as a "brain disease."

That makes it comparable to other diseases of the brain such as a tumor which affects cognition and mood. The media reported that some of the members of the famous Kennedy family had been against such a public sharing of personal data by the son of the late Ted Kennedy.

But long before, that an academic in the psychiatry department at Johns Hopkins University, Kay Redfield Jamison, published "An Unquiet Mind." In it, along with providing tons of information and insight about the bipolar condition, Jamison disclosed her own struggle with manic depression. That included her serious suicide attempt.

It wasn't until I read Jamison's recent book "Nothing Was the Same" that I found out how torn she had been about revealing that she too was a victim of the disease she professionally treated. Her late husband, Richard Wyatt, had encouraged her to go forward. She asked her department head and other administration officials at Johns Hopkins if it would hurt the university brand if she wrote such a book. They, to her surprise, gave their blessing.

The world, though, was not so kind. Yes, she received thank-yous from other victims. Some colleagues provided sustained support. But there were myriad instances of implicit criticism, such as colleagues averting their eyes. At one conference overseas, a mean-spirited chap explicitly indicated she had been wrong to do that.

It's odd that what Kennedy calls brain disease, among the oldest in mankind, still carries such stigma. Those who out it can be penalized. When my father's cancer went to the brain, he experienced delusions such as threats to his personal security. Those in the neighborhood and families of other patients in the hospital rallied to help him. For example, they arranged for a security guard to visit him to assure his safety.

In the corporate part of my career, I kept my clinical depression under wraps. The siphoned off a lot of energy from my life. Only when I became an independent contractor did I begin sharing the details. One of my proudest accomplishments, I once declared in a published opinion-editorial, was always working, despite the predisposition to depression. That was in print days. I received tons of phone calls and letters.

Right now, I am more apt to crow about my ability to not off myself, despite frequent plunges down the rabbit hole into despair. The suicide gene runs in the family. At age 70, I have outlived most of those members on the Eastern European side. The little bit of good I can do because of my struggle to survive is intuitively picking up on others' suicidal thoughts. I ask them plainly: "Can I help?"

If more with brain disease outed themselves, there would be a wider pool in the informal networks of those others can confide in. At least on our own good days.

January 29, 2016

The universe smiled on Roger Ailes last night. The numbers for the Fox News GOP debate without Donald Trump totaled 12.5 million viewers.

That probably means the aging media genius, Ailes, still has his job. And his hold on power and influence at the network he built. For now.

But the Murdoch boys, all three, seem to be eager to put their own stamp on Fox. Some of us have the feeling that Ailes will be sent out to pasture after the election and before Trump is sworn in as president.

Ailes' fatal flaw seems to be his inability to read Trump. His responses to the Trump phenomenon show that Ailes is off his usual game.